The Lost and Unseen
by Chaotica
Summary: A series on the regular Mutants out in the world and how they find safety or peril or nothing at all. Each chapter centers on a different Mutant. Read Authors Note for universe details.
1. Sins of the Mother

A/N: First I'd like to say that I have a patchwork idea on any X-men Universe. So to make things easier on me and you the reader I'm just going to take the two versions I have the easiest access to and combine them to make a comprehensive world for all of this to enact in. I am using the 'Movie' rules and laws of society and the school lay out but putting the 'X-men: Evolution' cartoon version of the 'Main' Characters in there. I do this because the cartoon has characters that I can easily assimilate and understand but the Movie has a more interesting setting.  
As far as anti-Mutant groups go I will probably just pull out any known ones (since I don't know them off hand) and create one that will fill the need should I find one is required. The 'Main' Characters (Nightcrawler, Wolverine, Rogue etc...) will not be showcased in this series except in one later or as a mention of some kind, but it's just easier to use set characters in that one compared to creating new ones to fit the bill.  
Okay, with that out of the way, on to the rest of it...  
  
The Lost and Unseen: Sins of the Mother  
  
Gladys Horner was washing dishes that day.  
She placed a cleaned and rinsed glass on a towel she had laid out on the counter when a bizarre 'Zatch-pop' found it's way through the air. She nearly dropped the wet glass onto the towel, but it seemed to wobble back upright on it's own as she raced into the living room.  
Her son Joseph was curled on the floor just in front of the Television. The appliance itself was smoking slightly, a lighting flash of dark black across what parts of the screen hadn't cracked.  
She knelt by her son who was holding his hand whimpering quietly. She was able to pry his other arm away to get a good look. He wasn't burned or marked in any way, but his clothes had been melted in spots.  
"Joey?" She asked turning the unharmed hand over. "What happened?"  
He looked at her frightfully. He was barely ten years old and was forced to acknowledge something shouldn't have to consider for a few more years. Something that made him a different part of society. "I was just going to turn it on." He said, voice cracking. "It just blew up, all I did was turn it on. I'm sorry, I didn't mean to."  
She stroked his head, a tissue box seemed to be closer than normal and she pulled a few to dry his tears. "Joey, you have to be careful. We have to replace the TV before your father gets home."  
Her son, her poor son. Small, skinny, scraggly hair, and a Mutant, all of this made him something most people would turn away from. And it was all her fault.  
"Come on, get up. I know you can't really control what's happening to you." She straightened his clothes and hair as he stood. "But you have to be more careful. If your father ever finds out."  
"Let him find out." Joey said sounding angrier than he'd intended.  
Her eyes fell to the floor. "No, he can't baby."  
"Momma, we can go somewhere else. Be around people like us. Mrs. Wetts next door, she knows of this place."  
She was so ashamed. It was because of her and her faulty genes that he had any power at all, if only... "No honey, don't talk like that. You're too young to talk like that."  
She turned her head to face the front door when the sound of a car pulling up reached her. "Oh shit. I mean shoot. Oh I don't know what I mean." She stood up looking worriedly at Joey. "You're father's home." She strode to the TV and tipped it over. The crash wasn't deafening but the screen split along the web work of breaks as it hit the floor. "I'll tell him I broke it on accident, you get to your room."  
Joey dashed up the stairs to his room pausing at the top just out of sight. The door had opened.  
Daddy was home.  
"Gladys what the hell happened to the TV?"  
"Mike, please, it was an accident, I was dusting and I guess I reached too far and."  
"Shut up." Michael Horner slapped his wife.  
She didn't spring back from the assault and remained motionless. "It was an accident."  
"Do you want another one?" He asked threateningly.  
Before she could answer a voice called from above. "Don't you do that again!"  
Mike looked up the staircase to his son. "Joey, the hell are you doing?"  
"Telling you to back off." For a ten year old he was doing a good job of presenting himself boldly. "Don't you ever touch my mother again!"  
"Oh, so the little bastard wants to play does he? Well come on big man, lets see what you got." He advanced up the stairs.  
Joey put a hand on the wall where he stood, the electric pattern burned into the wallpaper and plaster beneath it. He couldn't help but smile at the look on his fathers face. The man that had been a bane on his mothers' life.  
"You little Mutant. I should beat you within an inch of your life." Mike said dangerously.  
"Try it."  
"Mike please! Joey stop, go to your room."  
Michael turned on his wife. "It was you, you did this. You infected little wretch. I knew I should have left you in that dead-end town where I found you."  
"Mike, please don't say that." She was starting to cry.  
"I said leave her alone!" The boys' power could not travel through the air but the staircase became an impressive display of electricity and melted plastic as the shock reached up burning through the older mans shoes regardless of the rubber the soles consisted of.  
Mike went rolling and landed rather hard at the base of the staircase.  
Joey, breathing hard and more than a little dazed at what he'd just done, bolted down the stairs. He grabbed his mothers' hand. "C'mon, we have to go while he's out we." He pulled on the doorknob and stopped in his tracks.  
There, hand raised to knock, was Mrs. Wetts. She was a strange old woman from next door with white hair she'd possessed since she was born. A pair of bright purple eyes normally kept behind dark sunglasses gazed down at the boy. "I see you've taken matters into your own hands anyway my little Strike."  
Joey clung to his mother. "He did it again."  
Mrs. Wetts nodded. "I know, I could feel it from my kitchen. The car will be here soon." Those strange eyes lifted to Gladys. "My dear, I'm so sorry, I should have taken care of this long ago. But it was your life not mine."  
"What are you doing here?" Gladys asked suddenly.  
Mrs. Wetts smiled. "I doubt your son has had the chance to tell you. There is a place, I was hoping to sneak you out. It's for people like you."  
"A Woman's shelter?" She asked increasing her hold on Joey.  
The older woman shook her head. "Don't think I haven't seen you. The glass of milk that never spills, the napkin that never hits the ground, the errant utensil that's just out of your reach suddenly sliding into your hand." Her smile widened. "It's a place for Mutants my dear."  
A non-descript gray car pulled up in front of the house. A woman with sharp features and cat-eyes got out, claws held in a way that made them less noticeable.  
A man got out from the drivers side. He looked normal enough. "Well if it isn't old Violet-Eyes." He called smiling cordially as he approached. "How's things?"  
Mrs. Wetts gave him a long look.  
His eyes seemed to lose their focus, then snapped back into place. "That bad huh?" He looked to Gladys. "My name is Richie, most call me Equal." He held out a hand to shake.  
She took it carefully.  
Richie's attention turned to the boy. "So you're Strike huh?"  
"Strike?" Gladys asked.  
"That's my name mom. I can send electricity into anything I touch. Anything." Joey said while looking up at her.  
A moan behind them alerted Richie and his less-than-talkative partner to Mike in the background.  
Mrs. Wetts pulled Gladys farther out of the house. Joey followed closely. "Quickly dear, before that brute wakes."  
"But." She thought about trying to get away, but didn't.  
"Gladys?" Mike got to his feet slowly leaning out the front door. His wife was about to get into a strange car with a strange man and the kooky old woman from next door. And what the hell was that Mutant doing standing by them all. The cat-like-woman glared at him from her place between him and his departing family.  
"Gladys you get back here! Gladys!"  
His wife stopped getting into the car and faced him. "Mike, please, don't do this."  
He looked at her. Really looked at her. That bitch Mutant wife of his had infected his son and was now going to abandon him. Stupid... "Gladys don't make me come over there."  
She was actually about to head back to him when Mrs. Wetts stopped her. "Don't dear, he's not worth it."  
Mike ducked back into the house and returned a moment later, an empty beer bottle in hand. "Stupid witch!" The bottle went flying.  
The cat-mutant reached a hand out to catch the object but it never got to her.  
Richie stared at this woman he'd been sent to collect from a bad situation. Her eyes were a color of gray he couldn't recall them being before. He glanced back at the house and saw a brown glass bottle sitting quietly in the air. Telekinesis was not exactly a radical power but she was obviously very strong. She'd caught the bottle quickly; it couldn't be more than five feet from the man who'd thrown it.  
"Mike, leave us alone."  
"You come back here. Now damn it!"  
Gladys let a few tears well up as she let the bottle splinter into long pieces. "Mike, please."  
Richie looked at Mrs. Wetts. "What the hell? Did she just do what I think she did?"  
The old woman nodded. "Seems she's stronger than I thought. Calm her before she actually does kill the man."  
Richie had a reason behind his code-name 'Equal'. He wore no gloves so his hand easily made contact with the skin of Gladys's arm.  
Immediately the shards of glass clinked to the ground. An overwhelming sense of calm came over her. She felt, well, equal. As if something she needed had been added to her letting her be balanced out.  
Mike shook away the momentary fear. It had looked as if Gladys was actually going to kill him. He started to leave the door when his wife was shut up in the car.  
The cat-mutant came into full view and held out her hand. "If you come any closer I will be forced to break bones you never knew existed pal." She said in a strangely deep voice. "This woman is going somewhere safe, I don't suggest you follow or try to find her. If you do you will be arrested and taken to a court of law."  
Mike stood still, glaring at the *thing* that was now telling him what to do. "Fine, take them, you can keep both those freaks." He turned around and went back into the house slamming the door behind him.  
Mrs Wetts peered into the car window and waved good-bye to the boy she'd gotten to know over the last few months since his powers had shown themselves. His mother was still lost in the swoon of Equals' gift.  
Once the car was out of sight she put on her sunglasses and simply went home.  
  
***  
  
"Gladys tell me how you feel."  
She looked up at the strange man. He was very nice and had a wonderful voice. Though he was completely bald and confined to a wheel chair he seemed perfectly normal.  
"Lost." She said quietly.  
He nodded. "Richard and Fiona tell me you expressed a Mutant power of your own when they picked you up. Even my associate Deana Wetts says she's seen you use it. Would you like to tell me about it?"  
She looked down. "I, I can't."  
"Are you afraid?"  
She nodded.  
"Of what Gladys?"  
She shook her head slightly. "I can't let anyone find out. Mike, he made me promise to never use them when we got married. Then when Joey was born, I just got so frustrated. I started using them a little at a time to get things done." She looked up. "Not in front of him of course."  
The Professor nodded. "Tell my Gladys. Did Michael hit you often?"  
She froze. A slight buzz entered the back of her mind. She didn't quite know it but the Professor was giving her a slight nudge of confidence. Sometimes required to get a few patients to face a fear or reality.  
"Y-yes."  
"And you never retaliated?"  
She shook her head more defiantly. "I could have hurt him. I mean, I can lift a car if I keep my mind at it."  
He quirked an eyebrow. Few Mutants from their generation had a Telekinetic power of her sort at that magnitude.  
"Interesting. Do you have any other powers at all?"  
"No."  
Xavier leaned forward on his desk. "Gladys, I'd like you to consider staying here at the Institute. There are very few Mutants of your age that show themselves. I'm sure you could help many of the children here with powers similar to you. You and Jean could benefit from each other come to think of it."  
Her hands twisted in her lap. "I don't know. I'm so scared. What if Mike finds."  
"He won't." The professor said interrupting her. "He's already had a restraining order placed against him and he's on our Watch List. Many of our students are being protected from similar situations."  
"But. I'm just a house wife." Another buzz entered her mind and she felt a little calmer.  
"We do have job openings in the Institute if you'd like to take one up. You could even consider classes on one of our many scholarships. This is a place to allow Mutants the chance to be productive members of society and the use of their powers at the same time." He kept up the buzz letting her get the full impact of the opportunity he was giving her. "You have a gift. Many in," He paused. "Our generation did not get a chance to use what they have. I was very lucky. I sincerely wish you had been as fortunate. You have a very strong ability that even with dis-use has become very impressive."  
She looked down at the floor as he removed his influence. This was her decision, not his.  
"Let us help you Gladys."  
She took a moment to glance out the window. She could plainly see many of the students already enrolled. Joey would defiantly fit in here. She'd already seen him comparing powers with a couple of other children who used electricity.  
But would she?  
"You say, there are others with powers like mine?" She asked looking back to the Professor.  
He nodded. Even without trying he could hear her debating with herself on the matter. Mental powers often had a physic offshoot to them, she seemed to have a very mild ability to project her thoughts. She could use some training in 'lowering her voice' so to speak.  
"I, I don't know. But maybe, at least for a little while. For Joey."  
He nodded. "As long as you like. I'll have Jean show you around. She has Telekinetic powers as well." He pressed a small button on the intercom.  
A girl, possibly in her Senior year of high school came in, red hair loose down her back. She looked very, normal.  
"Jean, this is Gladys Horner. She'll be staying with us." The Professor said. "Gladys, this is Jean Grey. Jean, if you'll show her to the room we set up for her and her son."  
"Of course Professor." Jean said holding her hand out to Gladys.  
The older woman shook it carefully as she was escorted from the room.  
"So." Jean said. "You're Strike's mother?" She was very impressed with this woman. So few Mutants at his age or even Gladys's age had the courage to even come to him. Fewer still to be open about their ability to themselves.  
"Yes. Though I guess he'll always be Joey to me." She paused a moment. "Do you have a name like that too?"  
Jean gave a small laugh. "No, I'm just Jean. It's a little harder getting a 'Name' when you're abilities are all mental ones. Anything you come up with makes you sound like a bad 70's super hero or something."  
Gladys smiled. "I suppose."   
Jean motioned Gladys further down the hall. "The room for you two is down here.  
Gladys glanced in the direction she was about to go. Jean just stood there waiting with a smile for her to follow. It looked so nice, no threats if she slipped up on her power, no smacks if she didn't make dinner just right.  
Maybe she would stay here. 


	2. Demon and It

A/N: I'd like to take this opportunity to install the disclaimer I forgot previously. This will stand for the rest of the series. I don't own a scrap of any X-men universe. So there.  
Also, this one is kinda sad. Just thought I'd warn you.  
  
The Lost and Unseen: Demon and It  
  
This place was dark, lit by what illumination escaped into it through slotted windows the occasional times when the door-above was opened.  
A small boy, around five or so in age, perhaps close to six by now, sat curled in a far corner. Unlike a normal Human child he had a burnt-tan fur all over him, his hair was the same color but longer and roughly cut. Almost oversized triangular ears were perched on the top of his head and wide golden eyes watched the only other occupant of this cellar.  
He was only known as 'Demon', a name his grandfather had given him the day he'd been born. He had a registered name he just never knew it. His mother was a mere teenager, her father didn't think his daughter should have to bear the burden of a child, much less a mutant one.  
The other one was a second child to Demon's mother and male as well but more deeply mutated than even the older brother. The less than a year old baby was covered in gold-green scales and was shaped more like a lizard than a Human. He could even skitter across the floor on all fours when he was active. Red glimmering eyes darted around spying a cricket.  
Most of the time 'It', as the poor boy was known, stayed near the water heater to stay warm. He was truly cold-blooded but showed as much affection for Demon as any mammalian creature.  
Footsteps above them and a few muffled sounds were all these two children knew of the world-above. Demon spoke broken English, It spoke none. At least once a day their grandfather came down to give them something to eat and drink and to take away waste.  
The man might not like the state he found hid grandchildren to be in. He might have hated them with all his heart, but they were his daughters' children. She had begged for their lives and he had agreed. It didn't keep him from trying to beat the evil out of them in any case.  
The cellar door came open sending in light that was almost too much for either of the children's eyes. It fled into a shadowed corner with a flourish of claws and tail, Demon curled his own tail around his leg and stayed still.  
Heavy footsteps descended, the man stopped halfway down the steps. "Boy, come here."  
Demon clenched his jaw but obeyed. If he didn't it might be worse. He yowled loudly when his grandfather grabbed the scruff of his neck and lifted him.  
"Boy, I don't know what you did, but you must have done something."  
Demon cringed. "Demo, do, nothing." He said shakily. He was capable of slightly better speech but fear hampered him at the moment.  
"Nothing, I guess that's what I should expect." He flung the boy back down the steps.  
The feline Mutant landed on all fours with a sudden twist of his body. The landing still hurt from the concrete floor. He bounded deeper into the dark closer to It.  
The man came all the way down stalking across the basement. He paced a little looking disappointed. "You two are the biggest lie God ever created. You're unholy, disgusting, stupid little creatures." He stop pacing and reached into the corner for It.  
Demon knew his small brother had little chance against a direct hit from their grandfather. His bones were very flexible and had more than once broken after a nasty fall. He also knew that It had developed a vicious set of fangs that were strangely hollow.  
"Stop squirming damn it and get what's coming to you!"  
"No! It! No!" Demon leapt at the man teeth bared. His retractable claws bit deep causing his grandfather to fling him hard to the floor.  
"Little bastard. I oughta...OW!" He pulled the lizard child from his arm where a few rips were now in his skin. "God damn it." He threw the small boy but with less force than he'd thrown Demon.  
The older boy slunk over to It peering at his younger sibling carefully. "It?"  
Red eyes came open and It made a hiss to prove he was alive. He flipped onto his belly letting a forked tongue flicker out. He rather liked the taste of blood.  
For a moment Demon was afraid of what would happen next, but his grandfather was acting strangely. He was clutching the bite mark and sounded as if he were choking.  
The mark had become a brutal purple color. He was spitting up blood in tremendous amount already as the Mutant venom coursed through him making every vessel in his lungs explode with amazing force.  
"Granda?" Demon asked. He drew back when the man fell over drooling a thick yellow liquid along with the oddly dark red blood.  
The boy felt sick. He'd never experienced death before; he had literally no idea what had just happened.  
"Granda?" His voice was more frightened. He nearly jumped out of his fur when It gave him a push with his head.  
It scuttled over his grandfathers body and up the stairs, stopping midway to eye his brother.  
As soon as his senses came back to him Demon followed but more slowly. The bright lights of midday stung his eyes.  
Everything was so strange. The light, the color, the lack of ceiling. It scared him to the point that he almost darted back into the cellar.  
But It was less impressed by the newness. He raced into the backyard with without abandon making Demon chase after him. He became a little frustrated when he ran headlong into a chain link fence covered in something long and green.  
Demon crouched by this fence staring at his brother. "What?" He asked quietly.  
It whipped his tail in several seemingly random directions then nudged at the fence.  
The cat-boy eyed the fence and gripped it with a hand. "Up?"  
In response It lifted himself and grasped the fence pulling. It didn't get very far. His body was not build for vertical climbing. He hissed lowly, angry at the obstacle.  
Demon crawled a little farther down the fence until he came to a place that had none of these green attachments. It was a gate with a simple latch. He'd never seen one before but it was an obvious way out.  
It trundled closer curious as to what his brother had found.  
Demon took hold the gate and shook it, nothing happened. He pulled down on the latch, again nothing happened. He pulled harder and got more frustrated finally pushing up in anger. It flipped up nearly taking off a finger.  
The gate creaked open enough to be noticed.  
Both boys stared a moment until It nosed it open farther sliding out of the back yard into another yard that had no fence of it's own.  
Neither of them knew what to expect. Their life had been limited until now, but this place had to be better. Hadn't it?  
The sound of many voices drew Demon out towards the street. He paused and glanced back at It who had startled a rabbit out of it's hiding place. The animal had made a clean get away leaving It to pad back to his brother.  
Demon stood up straight to get a better look. A few trails of people he'd never even thought could exist disappeared around a corner towards the voices. They looked very interesting but very frightening.  
The boy crouched by his brother. "Much, like Ganda. Go?"  
It didn't respond and was already on his way towards the sounds.  
Demon followed and was amazed at what he saw. There were so many people. He had no concept of what number there might be much less that there were actually other people than his Granda.  
His sensitive ears had already picked up a main voice that was speaking to this mass of people. He could understand a little but not much.  
"The threat is all around us! How many of you want to see your children fall victim to this? It's a disease that we need to eradicate!"  
Several people in the crowd nodded and yelled their approval. This was an Anti-Mutant rally.   
It had lost his earlier bravado and had curled behind his brother as they walked.  
Demon glanced up at each of the faces around him. No one seemed to notice the pair of severely mutated children in their midst. That was until Demon bumped into a little girl.  
The two locked eyes. One pair a misty green the other a thick gold with oval pupils.  
They stared a long moment until the girl pulled on her mothers sleeve. The woman looked down at her daughter then into the direction the girl pointed.  
On instinct the woman jerked the child from the abomination before her screaming wildly.  
The crowd turned as one. Several people cursing and jumping away from the apparent mutants.  
Demon crouched low terribly afraid of all the sudden movement. It hissed darkly at anyone who even looked as if they were coming too close.  
"Someone grab 'em!" A voice called out.  
Demon, a warm-blooded creature with a higher center of balance, was able to dart out of anyone's immediate grasp. It was not so lucky, his awkward limbs and low-slung body made for a slow get away, he was grabbed up with little effort.  
Unfortunately for his holder his neck had an amazing reach.  
The bite was deep and started to purple almost immediately. Another person from the crowd advanced to help retain the thrashing Reptile-boy, still another came into the fray when the bite victim convulsed and coughed up blood.  
Madness erupted at the sight. People backed away farther, a few approached to help hold It down or to capture Demon.  
The older boy found himself encased in arms. His pupils contracted to mere slits as he bit and scratched his way free. A few screams of pain and he landed hard on the ground.  
A sudden sharp snap made the men holding It fall still.  
The silence was unexpected as a few backed off. A scale-covered tail gone limp was the first Demon saw. The next was his brother's neck hanging at an odd angle.  
Still breathing hard from fighting for freedom he suddenly couldn't inhale. Visions of his grandfather still and unmoving, the unnatural way he didn't breath.  
"It, it was an accident." The last man holding It said.  
A few police had made their way into this loose knot of people but stopped at the sight of one dead man in the street and a large dead lizard that almost looked Human.  
"It?" Demon hobbled forward, no one touched him. They were afraid he might be poison as well. His little hands gripped at the green-gold body shaking it. "It?" It would have been heart wrenching to those around him if they weren't so terrified.  
Demon felt his eyes sting. Something deep inside broke in half, something he could not fathom a name for.  
A sharp keening sound split the air then vanished but the boy still appeared to be screaming.  
A few pairs of glasses splintered, a hearing aid all but exploded in an elderly mans ear. The streetlight above them crackled and busted, showering everyone below it in bits of sturdy glass. A security system in a nearby car went off as its safety glass splintered into a lateral stress pattern. Several people bent over in pain until almost all of them had gone to their knees.  
He inhaled sharply about to let loose another pain ridden shriek when something crashed into his head. A man from the crowd held a bat over him, he could barely see it as his vision faded in and out.  
"God damn mutant demon!" The man shouted about to strike again. Another man grabbed his arm stopping him.  
"It's a kid Frank! Jesus, it's only a kid!" The other man tried to wrestle the bat from him.  
Eventually a police officer had shaken off the effects of the scream enough to get in the middle of it. He got landed with a nasty left hook.  
Demon struggled to get up. Red dripped down his face onto the ground. His head ached like the time his grandfather had thrown him against the wall for not eating some bad tasting food. He suddenly stopped crawled and retched, nothing came up and it didn't help the pain.  
He tried to crawl again, towards It. He attempted to say his brothers' name but couldn't get his jaw to work. The world darkened a little, he barely noticed that he'd fallen over.  
The voices dimmed and the pain bled away spreading from him like the gentle pool that gathered around his head. He almost heard a woman scream to get an ambulance but it didn't matter.  
He was back in the dark where he belonged.  
  
***  
  
They sat around the TV, a few of them crying, others trying not to. The news had come on less than ten minuets ago and already the entire mansion knew.  
"The mutant children, identified as Marcus Leftlin and Daniel Leftlin had wandered into an anti-mutant rally earlier today." The News anchorwoman wore red and spoke in an even tone. "The Daniel, with reptilian mutations, was the first captured. The child apparently had a venomous bite and killed a rally member while trying to escape. Witnesses say it took only seconds for," She paused to get the name right. "Willard Groutman, to die. Marcus, with apparent feline mutations, was beaten to death. Both men responsible for the children's deaths are in custody but it unsure to what length the law will go to punish them."  
All of them knew that the men would probably get off with a fine. It was an unspoken thing that night. The life of a mutant, their lives, meant nothing to the 'normal' people. The proof was written in the blood of two children now.  
"In related news the boys grandfather Charles Leftlin was found in his basement dead of the same venom carried by his grandson. Most disturbingly police found evidence that the boys had been kept down there for some time. Officials suspect that Mr. Leftlin had been abusing them and in a struggle Daniel bit his grandfather granting the two escape."  
Kitty had curled up at one end of the couch. She turned away from the TV at that last development.  
Scott, who was beside her pulled her over with his free arm, Jean was already locked protectively under his other. "It's okay Kitty." He said quietly, not sounding as in control as he wanted to. "They're in a better place now."  
On the TV the news changed to cover world events. But there in that sanctuary for mutants the world didn't matter. The two they'd been unable to save did. 


End file.
